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ubiished Weekly Price, 50 Cents Annual Subscription, $25.00 December 13, 1897 

ENTERED AT tHE CHICAGO POST-OFFICE AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER 



CHINA 



BY 



JOHN L. STODDARD 



Illustrated and Embellished with One Hundred 

and Twenty-two Reproductions of 

Photographs 




CHICAGO 
BELFORD, MIDDLEBROOK & COMPANY 

MDCCCXCVII 



Copyright, 1897, by John L. Stoddard 







>>30'ofCo' 



CHINA 



JOHN LTSTODDARD 



ILLUSTRATED AND EMBELLISHED WITH ONE HUNDRED 

AND TWENTY-TWO REPRODUCTIONS OF 

PHOTOGRAPHS 



.\ 




CHICAGO 

BELFORD, MIDDLEBROOK & COMPANY 

MDCCCXCVII 



\^q(Lft^e>v 



Copyright, 1897 
By John L. Stoddard 



Entered at Stationers' Hall, London 

ALL lilGHTS RESERVED 



689 




CHINA defies the world to equal her in three important 
respects: age, population, and industries. As for 
the first, she undoubtedly has the oldest Government 
on earth. Even the Papacy is young compared with it ; and as 
for our republic, it is a thing of yesterday. A Chinaman 
once said to an American: "Wait till your Government has 
been tried before you boast of it. What is a hundred years? 
Ours has stood the test of forty centuries. When you did not 
exist, we were. When you shall have r, 

passed away, we still shall be." 

In point of numbers, too, the Chinese 
empire leads the world. Its area is nearly 
twice as large as that of the United States, 
and it has six times as many people. The 
governor of one Chinese province rules 
over sixty million souls. Have we a defi- 
nite conception of what four hundred 
million human beings are? Arrange the 
inhabitants of our globe in one long line, 
and every fourth man will be a Chinaman. 

As for her industries, Musa, the Saracen conqueror of 
Spain, once aptly said that Wisdom, when she came from 
heaven to earth, was lodged in the head of the Greeks, the 
tongue of the Arabs, and the hands of the Chinese. China 




EMPEROR OF CHINA. 



4 CHINA 

was once what the United States is now — the birthplace of 
inventions. Paper was manufactured there in the third cen- 
tury of our era. Tea was produced a century later. If 
Europe had enjoyed communication with China, it would 




A CHINESE TEMPLE. 



have learned the art of printing many centuries before it did; 
and who can say what might have been the result ? A thou- 
sand years ago the Chinese made designs on wood. Print- 
ing from stone was a still earlier industry among them. In 
China, also, gunpowder was first invented — a thought by 
which, alas! so many thoughts have been destroyed. This 
same astonishing race produced the mariner's compass in the 
fourth century, porcelain in the third, chess and playing- 
cards in the twelfth, and silk embroideries in almost prehis- 
toric times. An empire, therefore, of such vast antiquity, 



CHINA 



5 



overwhelming population, and great achievements must be, 
despite its faults, a country of absorbing interest. 

The most delightful portion of the voyage from Japan to 
China lies in the Japanese Mediterranean, known as the 
Inland Sea. It is a miniature ocean, practically land-locked 
for three hundred miles, with both shores constantly in sight, 
yet strewn with islands of all shapes and sizes, from small and 
uninhabited rocks to wave-encircled hills, terraced and culti- 
vated to their very summits. It seems as if volcanic action 
here had caused the land to sink, until the ocean rushed in 
and submerged it, leaving only the highest peaks above the 
waves. 

We lingered here all day upon the steamer's deck, like 
passengers on the Rhine, fearing to lose a single feature of 
the varied panorama gliding by on either side. By night it was 
more glorious even than by day ; for then, from every danger- 




THE JAPANESE MEDITERRANEAN. 



ous cliff flashed forth a beacon light ; the villages along the 
shore displayed a line of glittering points, like constellations 
rising from the sea; and, best of all, at a later hour, moon- 
light lent enchantment to the scene, drawing a crystal edge 



CHINA 




W K-ENlIKCLCU HILI, 



along each mountain crest, and making every island seem a 
jewel on a silver thread. 

When we emerged from these inland waters, we saw be- 
tween us and the setting sun the stretch of ocean called the 
China Sea. At certain seasons of the year this is the favorite 
pathway of typhoons; and the Formosa Channel, in particu- 
lar, has been a graveyard for countless ves- 
sels. Indeed, only three weeks before, a sister 




HUGE SAILS LIKE THE WINGS OF BATS, 



CHINA 



7 



ship of ours — the "Bokhara," — had gone down here in a ter- 
rific cyclone. Yet when we sailed its waters nothing could 
have been more beautiful. Day after day this sea of evil omen 
rested motionless, like a sleek tigress gorged with food and 
basking in the sun. 

After a three-days' voyage from the Japanese coast, we 
began to meet, in constantly increasing numbers, large, 
pointed boats, propelled by huge sails ribbed with cross-bars, 
like the wings of bats. Upon the bow of each was painted an 




THE HARBOR OF HONG-KONG. 



enormous eye; for of their sailing craft the mariners of China, 
in elementary English, say: "If boat no have eye, how can 
boat see go?" We were assured that these were Chinese sail- 
ing craft, and that our destination was not far away; but it 
was difficult to realize this, and I remember looking off beyond 
those ships and trying to convince myself that we were actu- 
ally on the opposite side of the globe from home and friends, 
and in a few brief hours were to land in that vast Eastern 
empire so full of mystery in its exclusiveness, antiquity, and 
changeless calm. 



CHINA 



That night the agitation that precedes one's first arrival 
in a foreign land made sleep almost impossible. It seemed to 
me that I had not closed my eyes when suddenly the steamer 
stopped. To my astonishment, the morning light had already 
found its way into my state-room. We had arrived! Hurry- 
ing to the deck, therefore, I looked upon the glorious harbor of 
Hong-Kong. A hundred ships and steamers lay at anchor here, 

displaying flags of every 
country on the globe. Al- 
though the day had hardly 
dawned, these w^ a t e r s 




THE CITY OF VICTORIA. 



showed great animation. Steam-launches, covered with white 
awnings, were darting to and fro like flying-fish. Innumerable 
smaller boats, called sampans, propelled by Chinese men and 
women, surrounded each incoming steamer, like porpoises 
around a whale. On one side rose some barren-looking moun- 
tains, which were a part of the mainland of China; but for 
the moment they presented little to attract us. It was the 
other shore of this magnificent harbor that awoke our interest ; 
for there we saw an island twenty-seven miles in circumfer- 
ence, covered with mountains rising boldly from the sea. 



CHINA 



II 



Along the base of one of these elevations, and built in terraces 
far up on its precipitous slopes, was a handsome city. 

"What is this?" we inquired eagerly. 

"The town itself," was the reply, "is called Victoria, but 
this imposing island to whose flank it clings, is, as you may 
suppose, Hong-Kong." 

The first impression made upon me here was that of mild 
astonishment at the architecture. Almost without exception, 
the prominent buildings of Victoria have on every story deep 
porticoes divided by columns into large, square spaces, which 




A STREET IN HONG-KONG. 



from a distance look like letter-boxes in ' a post-ofifice. We 
soon discovered that such deep, shadowy verandas are essen- 
tial here, for as late as November it was imprudent not to carry 
a white umbrella, and even before our boat had brought us 
from the steamer to the pier, we perceived that the solar rays 
were not to be trifled with. 

As soon as possible after landing, we started to explore 
this British settlement. I was delighted with its streets and 
buildings. The former are broad, smooth and clean; the lat- 
ter, three or four stories high, are built of granite, and even 
on a curve have sidewalks shielded from the sun or rain by 



12 



CHINA 



the projection of the roof above. Truly, the touch of Eng- 
land has wrought astounding changes in the fifty-five years 
that she has held this island as her own. Before she came 
it was the resort of poverty-stricken fishermen and pirates. 




DEEP PORTICOES AND COLONNADES. 



But now the city of Victoria alone contains two hundred 
thousand souls, while the grand aqueducts and roads which 
cross the mountains of Hong-Kong are worthy to be com- 
pared with some of the monumental works of ancient Rome. 
Along the principal thoroughfare in Victoria, the banks, 
shops, hotels, and club-houses, which succeed each other rap- 
idly, are built of the fine gray granite of the adjacent moun- 
tains, and show handsome architectural designs. Everything 
looks as trim and spotless as the appointments of a man-of- 
war. Even the district of the town inhabited by Chinamen 
is kept by constant watchfulness immeasurably cleaner than 
a Chinese city ; although if one desires to see the world-wide 
difference that exists between the British and Mongolian races. 



CHINA 



13 



he merely needs to take a short walk through the Chinese 
quarter of Victoria. But such comparisons may well be de- 
ferred until one reaches Canton. There one beholds the gen- 
uine native article. 

The police who guard the lives and property of the resi- 
dents of Hong-Kong, are for the most part picked men of 
English birth, and are considered as trustworthy as regular 
troops. But several hundred of these guardians of the peace 
are Sikhs — a race imported hither from India — renowned for 
bravery, loyal to the British government, and having no sym- 
pathy with the Chinese. These Sikhs have handsome faces, 
brilliant eyes, and dark complexions, the effect of Avhich is 

wonderfully en- hanced by their 

immense red ^„'^ ^-"""--^ turbans, con- 




THE BANK, HONG-KONG. 



spicuous two or three blocks away, not only by their startling 
color, but because their wearers exceed in stature all other 
races in Hong-Kong. 

Strolling one morning through the outskirts of the city, I 
came upon some troops engaged in military manoeuvres, and 



14 



CHINA 




POLICEMEN. 



attired in white from head to foot, to shield them from the 
sun. What traveler in the East can forget the ever-present 
soldiers of Great Britain, of whom there are nearly three 

thousand i n 
the garrison of 
Hong-Kong? I 
know it is fre- 
quently the 
fashion to sneer 
at them and to 
question their 
efficiency in 
case of war. I 
know, too, that 

in certain Avays the vast extent of England's empire constitutes 
her weakness. But I must say that in a tour around our planet 
I was impressed as never before with what the British had ac- 
complished in the way of conquest, and with the number of 
strategic points they hold in every quarter of the globe. We 
had but recently left the western terminus of England's North 
American pos- 
sessions, yet in 
a few days we 
discerned the 
flag of England 
flying at Hong- 
Kong. Next 
we beheld the 
Union Jack at 
Singapore, then 
at Penang, then 

at Ceylon, and after that throughout the length and breadth 
of the vast empire of India, as well as the enormous area 
of Burma. Leaving Rangoon, if we sail southward, we are 




SOLDIERS DRILLING. 



CHINA 



17 



reminded that the southernmost portion of Africa is entirely 
in English hands, as well as the huge continent of Australia. 
Returning northward, we find the same great colonizing power 

stationed at the ^ _______^ mouth of the 

Red Sea, in ^^^--"^'^ ^>^ the British 




citadel of 
a trifling journey, 
Egypt, via the Suez 
tually controlled to- 



A BIT OF CHINATOWN IN HONG-KONG. 



Aden. Again 
and we reach 
Canal, both vir- 
day by Eng- 



land. Then, like the three stars in Orion's belt, across the 
Mediterranean lie Cyprus, Malta, and Gibraltar; in fact, we 
find one mighty girdle of imposing strongholds all the way, 
bristling with cannon, guarded by leviathans in armor, and 



i8 CHINA 

garrisoned by thousands of such soldiers as were drilHng at 
Hong-Kong. 

One of the first desires of the visitor to Hong-Kong is to 
explore the mountain which towers above the city of Victoria 
to a height of nearly two thousand feet. To do this with the 
least exertion, each of our party took a canvas-covered bam- 
boo chair, supported by long poles, which Chinese coolies 
carry on their shoulders. On level ground, two of these 
bearers were enough, but on the mountain roads three or 




HUlillilfruHr 



^>a»^ijss' 



CHAIR-COOLIES AT HONG-KONG. 



four men were usually needed. To my surprise, I found the 
motion of these chairs agreeable. The poles possess such 
elasticity that, leaning back, I was rocked lightly up and 
down without the least unpleasant jar. In fact, at times the 
rhythm of that oscillation gave me a sense of drowsiness diffi- 
cult to resist. 

But, alas! we had not here for carriers the cleanly natives 
of Japan. It may be, as some residents of Hong-Kong 
assert, that Chinamen are more trustworth)- and honest than 
the Japanese, but certainly in point of personal attracti\"cness 
the contrast between these races is remarkable. The bodies 



CHINA 



19 



of the lower classes of Chinese reveal no evidence of that care 
so characteristic of the natives of Japan. Their teeth are 
often yellow tusks; their nails resemble eagle's claws; and 
their unbecoming clothes seem glazed by perspiration. Nor 
is there usually anything in their manner to redeem all this. 
Where the light-hearted Japs enjoy their work, and laugh and 
talk, the Chinese coolies labor painfully, and rarely smile, 




THE MOUNTAIN ABOVE VICTORIA. 



regarding you meantime with a supercilious air, as if despising 
you for being what they call "a foreign devil." 

Nevertheless, despite the repulsive appearance of our 
bearers, we thoroughly enjoyed our excursion up the moun- 
tain. At every step our admiration was increased for the 
magnificent roads which wind about the cliffs in massive ter- 
races, arched over by majestic trees, bordered by parapets of 
stone, lighted with gas, and lined with broad, deep aqueducts, 
through which at times the copious rainfall rushes like a 
mountain stream. It will be seen that such a comparison is 



20 



CHINA 



not an exaggeration, when I add that not many years ago, 
thirty-two inches of rain fell here in thirty hours. This 
mountain is the favorite abode of wealthy foreigners, and 
hence these curving avenues present on either side, almost to 




THE CABLE-ROAD TO VICTORIA PEAK. 



the summit, a series of attractive villas commanding lovely 
views. On accf>unt of their situation, the gardens of these hill- 
side homes are necessarily small; but in the midst of them, 
about five hundred feet above the town, a charming botanical 
park has been laid out. 

Forgetful of our coolies at the gate, we lingered in this 
garden for an hour or two, delighted with its fine display of 
semitropical foliage. It is marvelous what skillful gardeners 
have accomplished here, in transforming what was fift}' years 
ago a barren rock into an open-air conservator}^ Palms, 
banyans, india-rubber trees, mimosas with their tufts of gold, 
camellias with their snowy blossoms — all these are here, with 



CHINA 



21 



roses, mignonette, and jessamine, surrounded with innumer- 
able ferns. Occasionally we encountered in this fragrant area 
a Chinese gentleman, indulging leisurely his love of flowers; 
for this delightful park is open to all without regard to race 
or creed, although the population of the island is extremely 
cosmopolitan. Englishmen, Americans, Germans, French- 
men, Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, Parsees, Mohamme- 
dans, Jews, Hindus, and fully one hundred and fifty thousand 
Chinamen, are residents of the city of Victoria alone. 

In this retired park one does not realize that Hong-Kong' 
is such a rendezvous for different nationalities; but frequently, 
while we were walking here, the sharp report of a cannon 
forced a discordant echo from the neighboring hills and told 
us that some foreign man-of-war had just appeared within the 
bay ; for here 
some ship or 
steamer is con- 
tinually arriv- 
ing or depart- 
ing, and many 
times a day 
there comes a 
deafening inter- 
change of sa- 
lutes that sends 
a thrill through 
every window- 
pane upon the 
mountain. 

One can well 
understand, 

therefore, that with so mixed a population and in such close 
proximity to China, the officers sent out here by the British 
government must be men of courage, the garrison of the island 




THE BOTANICAL PARK, HONG-KONG. 



22 



CHINA 



strong, and its administration prompt and resolute. A single 
incident revealed to me the crimes which would undoubtedly 
creep forth, like vipers from a loathsome cave, were they 
not kept in check by vigorous justice and incessant vigilance. 
In one of the residences on the height above Victoria, I 
met one day at dinner the captain of a steamer anchored in 
the bay. He asked me to come out some evening and pay a 




AN OPEN-AIR CONSERVA rOK\". 



visit to his ship. The following night, soon after dark, I 
walked down to the pier, intending to embark on one of the 
many boats along the shore. I was about to enter one, when 
a policeman rapidly approached. "Give me your name and 
number," he said roughly to the Chinese boatman. Then 
turning to me, he politely asked my name, address, and des- 
tination, and when I intended to return. "I am obliged to 
do this," he explained, "for j'our protection. There is a 
population of twenty thousand Chinese living in this harbor 




A HONG-KONG STREET— IN THE CHINESE QUARTER. 



CHINA 



25 




IN THE BUSINESS SECTION, HONG-KONG. 



upon boats alone, besides the usual criminals who drift to 
such a place. Before we adopted this precaution, a foreigner 
would sometimes embark on one of these craft and never be 
seen again. In such a case search was useless. He had dis- 
appeared as quietly and thoroughly as a piece of silver 
dropped into the bay." 

When I stood on the apex of Victoria Peak, I thought that 
I had never seen a finer pros- 

pect. Nearly _^^ — -- """" ~ -..^.^ two thou- 




VI EW FROM 

VICTORIA PEAK, 



26 



CHINA 



sand feet below us lay tlie renowned metropolis of the East 
which bears the name of England's queen. From this great 
elevation, its miles of granite blocks resembled a stupendous 
landslide, which, sweeping downward from this rocky height, 
had forced its cracked and creviced mass far out into the bay. 
Between this and the mainland opposite, curved a portion of 
that ocean-girdle which surrounds the island, and on its sur- 
face countless boats and steamers seemed, in the long perspec- 
tive, like ornaments of bead-work on a lady's belt. 

Around the summit of the mountain are several handsome 
villas and hotels, whither the residents of Victoria come in 
summer to escape the heat; but, as a rule, in riding over the 
island I saw outside of the city very few houses, and little 

agriculture. The soil of 
Hong-Kong is not fer- 
tile; but politically and 
commercially the island 
is immensely valuable, for 
England has now made 
of it the great emporium 
of the Far East, and, gar- 
risoned by British troops, 
it guards completely the 
approaches to that river, 
upon which, ninety-two 
miles inland from the 
ocean, lies the city of 
Canton. 

One of the pleasantest 
excursions in Hong-Kong 
may be made in sedan-chairs, some six miles over the hills, to 
the great reservoir which supplies the city with water. The 
aqueduct which comes from it is solidly constructed, and on its 
summit is a granite path protected by iron railings. This 




THE RACE-TRACK, HONG-KONG. 



CHINA 



27 



winds along the cliffs for miles, and is in many places cut 
through solid rock. It is an illustration of the handsome, yet 
substantial character of everything accomplished here. One 
feels that such works are not only artistic, but enduring. Here 









THE AQUEDUCT, HONG-KONG. 






are no wooden trestles, 
no hastily constructed 
bridges and no half-made 
roads to be destroyed by 
mountain torrents, but everywhere the best of masonry, Cyclo- 
pean in massiveness and perfect in detail. 

On reaching the terminus of this granite pathway we saw 
before us the principal reservoir of Hong-Kong. Though 
largely artificial, it looks precisely like a natural lake hidden 
away among the mountains. Before it was constructed the 
island's water-supply was lamentably insufficient, and the no- 
torious "Hong-Kong fever" gave the place an evil name. 
But now, in spite of its large native population, Victoria has 
as low a death-rate as most European cities. The foreign 
residents are very proud of these magnificent water- works; 
yet, after ten days' sojourn here, when I took leave of sev- 
eral gentlemen by whom I had been entertained in private 



28 



CHINA 



houses and at clubs, candor compelled me to confess that, so 
far as I had been able to observe, the foreign population 
makes very little use of this water for drinking purposes. 

On starting to 
descend the 
mountain, we 
found a shorter 
route than the 
circuitous path 
by which we had 
come — ^an ad- 
mirably man- 
aged cable-road. 
In viewing this, 
the question nat- 
urally arises how the Chinese can look on such conveniences 
as England has here introduced, and still remain content to 
have in their enormous empire scarcely a decent road, and 
only a few miles of railway, built to transport coal. Canals 




A MOUNTAIN KOAD, HONG-KONG. 




AN EASY DESCENT. 



CHINA 



29 




A CHINESE ROAD. 



and rivers are 
still the usual 
arteries of travel 
through the 
most of China. 
In the northern 
provinces, where 
carts are used, 
the roads are 
often worn be- 
low the surface 
of the adjacent 
land, and hence 
become, in the 
rainy season, 
mere water-courses. Travelers are occasionally obliged to 
swim across them ; and cases have been known of people 
drowning in a Chinese roadway. Moreover, the characteristic 
carts of China are of the most primitive description, having 
no seats except 
the floor, and no 
springs save the 
involuntary ones 
contributed by 
their luckless 
passengers. Yet, 
in many dis- 
tricts, even such 
vehicles can find 
no path, and 
people travel 
about in wheel- 
barrows pro- 
pelled by coolies 




A CHINESE VEHICLE. 



30 



CHINA 



who are sometimes aided by a sail. The Bishop of North 
China, for example, makes many of his parochial visits in 
a wheelbarrow. 

There is now in China a small progressive party which 
favors building railroads, as the Japanese have done, but the 
immense majority are against it. Some years ago a foreign 
company built a railroad near Shanghai, but the Chinese 
speedily bought it up at a great cost, transported the rails and 




CHINESE GKAVES. 



locomotives to the sea, and left them to rust upon the beach. 
This opposition to railways is principally due to the belief 
that the use of them would deprive millions of people of their 
means of gaining a livelihood, and that they would, more- 
over, disturb the graveyards of the country. This latter objec- 
tion seems at first incredible; but it must be remembered 
that Chinese cemeteries are strewn broadcast o\'er the land, 

"Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks 
In Vallombrosa." 

One sees them everywhere, usurping valuable tracts of terri- 
tory needed for the living. Outside the city of Canton, for 



CHINA 



33 



example, there 
is a graveyard 
thirty miles in 
length, in which 
are buried fully 
one hundred 
generations. 
Yet the Chinese 
insist that not 
one grave shall 
be disturbed, lest 
multitudes of 
avenging ghosts 
should be let loose upon them for such sacrilege. In fact, 
the permanence and inviolability of graves lie at the very 
foundation of Chinese life and customs, which is ancestor- 
worship. From childhood to old age the principal duty 
of all Chinamen is to propitiate the spirits of their ances- 




AN ELABORATE TOMB. 




THE FOREIGN CEMETERY, HONG-KONG. 



34 



CHINA 




A FELLOW PASSENGER. 



tors, and to 
make offerings 
to them regu- 
larly at their 
tombs. This 
custom cripples 
the colossal em- 
pire of China as 
paralysis would 
a giant, and fear 
of doing violence to their dead holds China's millions in 
an iron grasp. 

The discussion of this theme, as we were descending the 
mountain, suggested to us the idea of visiting the foreign 
cemetery in Hong-Kong. In this, as in the public garden, 
charming results have been obtained by care and irrigation. 
We were accompanied by a gentleman who had resided on 
the island nearly thirty years. "In spite of the beauty of 
this place," he said, "I dread to think that I shall probably 
be buried here — unable to escape from China even after death. 
For notwithstanding many pleasant friends, my life, like that 
of many here, has been at best a dreary banishment from all 
that makes your Occidental life so stimulating to the intellect 




ON THE CANTON RIVER. 



CHINA 35 

and so rich in pleasures. The world at home," he added, 
"sometimes blames us for faults, the cause of which is often 
only an intense desire to counteract the loneliness of our ex- 
istence ; and foreigners in the East deserve some sympathy, if 
only from the fact that in these cemeteries, kept with so 
much care, the graves of those we love increase so rapidly." 
After a few days at Hong-Kong we embarked on one of 
the American steamers which ply between Victoria and Can- 
ton. These boats are modest imitations of the Fall River 
steamers on Long; Island Sound. We found the one that we 




RIVKR BOATS. 



took clean and comfortable and its American captain cordial 
and communicative. During the trip he related to us many 
incidents of his life in China. This he could easily do, for 
there were only two other foreign passengers on board, and 
hence, so long as we remained upon the promenade deck, the 
spacious vessel seemed to be our private yacht. 

On passing, hoAvever, to the deck below, we found a 
number of Chinamen, likewise going to Canton. Most of 
them were smoking, lying on their backs, their heads sup- 
ported by a bale of cloth. At first we thought these consti- 
tuted all the passengers; but presently we learned, to our 
astonishment, that farther down, packed in the hold Hke 



S6 



CHINA 



sardines in a box, and barricaded from us by an iron gra- 
ting, were more than a thousand Chinese cooHes. A sentry, 
heavily armed, stood by the padlocked grating constantly; 
while in the wheel-house and saloon were stands of loaded 




EXECUTION OF THE PIRATES. 



muskets ready for emergencies. The danger is that Chinese 
pirates will come on board in the disguise of coolies, and at a 
favorable moment take possession of the ship. One naturally 
thinks this an impossible occurrence; but only a few years 
ago this actually took place on one of these boats. A well- 
armed band of desperadoes swarmed up from the hold, shot 
down the captain in cold blood, and also some of the passen- 
gers who tried to interfere. Then, taking command of the 
ship, they forced the engineer and crew to do their bidding, 
steered to a lonely point where their confederates awaited 



CHINA 



37 



them, unloaded the valuable cargo into their boats, disabled the 
engine so that the survivors could not give the alarm, and 
finally made their escape. Such are the indisputable facts. 
Yet, sailing up this peaceful river, reclining in our easy chairs, 
and soothed by the soft, balmy air, the tragedy seemed so 
incredible that we were obliged to put our hands upon the 
guns, in order to realize that precautions were still needed. 

As an additional proof, the captain showed us a photo- 
graph of the sequel to that act of piracy. For, as a matter 
of course, the British Government demanded satisfaction for 
this outrage, and in compliance nineteen criminals were 
beheaded. Whether they were the actual pirates, however, 
has been doubted. China always has scores of men awaiting 
execution — a dozen here, a dozen there. What matters it 
if those who merit death are said to have committed one 
crime or another? England had no way of identifying them. 
Accordingly she shut her eyes, accepted what the Chinese said 
of them, and took it for granted that the decapitated men 
were the real culprits. At all events, as an eye-witness told 
us, the deed itself was quickly done. In each case there was 




WITH STARING EYES TURNED UPWARD. 



38 



CHINA 




AN OLD CHINESE FORT, CANTON RIVER. 



only one swing of the executioner's arm, and one flash of the 
two-edged sword; then, Hke a row of flowers clipped from 
their stems, the heads of all the kneeling criminals were lying 
in the sand, 
with staring 
eyes turned up- 
ward t o ^v a r d 
the sky. 

On leaving 
this repulsive 
picture in the 

captain's cabin, we found that we were approaching the once 
important settlement of Whampoa. Its glory is gone now, 

but formerly it 
played a prom- 
inent part in 
Eastern politics 
and commerce; 
for previous to 
the Opium War 
of 1 84 1 and the 
establishment of 
the Treaty Ports, 
this was as far 
as foreign ships 
were permitted 
to come, and 
Whampoa was 
then a kind of 
counter across 
which Cantonese 
and Europeans traded. We now began to observe along the 
shore strange-looking boats protected by a roof and filled with 
fruits and vegetables for the Canton market. Moreover, on 




OnUM- SMOKING. 



CHINA 



41 



both sides of the river for many miles we looked on countless 
little patches of rice, bananas, oranges, and sugar-cane. At 
one point our attention was called to an island on which are 
some old fortifications used by China fifty years ago in her 
attempt to exclude opium from her territory. I suppose that 
no intelligent student of the subject doubts that the real cause 
of the war of 1841 was the attempt of England to force upon 
the Chinese a drug which no one dares to sell in London, even 
now, unless it bears the label "poison." In 1840, the Com- 
missioner of 
Canton thus 
addressed the 
Queen of Eng- 
land : 

" How can 
your country 
seek to acquire 
wealth by sell- 
ing us an article 
so injurious to 
mankind ? I 
have heard that 
you have a gen- 
erous heart ; you must be willing, therefore, to obey the 
motto of Confucius, and refuse to do to others what you 
would not have others do to you." 

In an address to foreign traders, issued in 1840, the 
Chinese also said: "Reflect that if you did not bring opium 
here, where could our people obtain it? Shall, then, our peo- 
ple die, and your lives not be required? You are destroying 
human life for the sake of gain. You should surrender your 
opium out of regard for the natural feelings of mankind. If 
not, it is right for us to drive every ship of your nation from 
our shores." 




A CHINESE BRIDGE. 



/ 



42 CHINA 

Finding that these appeals were of no avail, the Chinese 
finally compelled the British merchants in Canton to give up 
all the opium in their possession. It amounted to twenty- 
one thousand chests, or about three million pounds. This 




THE CURSE OF CHINA. 



mass of poison the Chinese threw into the river, chest after 
chest, much as Americans treated English tea in Boston 
harbor. As It dissolved, it is said that a large number of 
fish died. England retaliated by broadsides from her men- 
of-war, and in 1842, after an unequal struggle, China was 
forced to pay her victorious enemy twenty-one million dollars 
— six millions for the opium destroyed, and fifteen millions 
as a war indemnity, besides giving to England as her property 
forever, the island of Hong-Kong, and opening five new ports 
to foreign trade. 

About a century ago opium was rarely used in China 
except as medicine. To-day it enters through the openings 
made by English cannon, at the rate of six thousand tons a 



CHINA 



43 



year, and at an annual profit to the Indian treasury of from 
thirty to forty milHon dollars. But this is not the worst: 
the vice of opium-smoking has spread with such rapidity that 
in one Chinese city alone, where thirty years ago only five 
opium dens existed, there are now five thousand. In the 
minds of many Chinamen, therefore, Christianity is principally 
associated with the gift of opium and its attendant evils. 
China has now begun to cultivate the poppy for herself, and in 
some provinces six-tenths of the land is given over to produc- 
ing opium, to the great detriment of agriculture. For the 
Chinese argue that if they must have it anyway, they may as 
well profit by it themselves, and let their own crop vie with 
that which England sends from India. It should be said that 
earnest protests have often been made by conscientious Eng- 
lishmen against this conduct of their Government, but all 



, 


^ 










i^:f*-.. „ 








' 




- ^ \- ^ ■ 




- 






>,.^ 


' 










' ^M 


■ .^|;^:,,/'.- 


^^^^#^fe 


i^' 






m 


^^m 




m.L.- 




1 


jug 



A VILLAGE SCENE. 



remonstrances have failed to change its policy. Hence, when 
our British cousins sometimes humorously say that we Ameri- 
cans worship only the almighty dollar, it may be well to ask 
if any deity under the sun is more devoutly reverenced than 
the omnipotent pounds, shillings, and pence. 



44 



CHINA 



When we had steamed about five hours from Hong-Kong, 
we came in sight of our first Chinese pagoda. It is a hollow 
tower of brick about three hundred feet in height, and re- 
sembles, on an enormous scale, one of those tapering sticks 
which jewelers use for sizing rings. At first, I thought that 
the nine circular terraces which mark its different stories were 
adorned with flags or tapestry, but closer scrutiny revealed the 
melancholy fact that weeds and bushes are now growing here. 
Indeed, like most of the sacred buildings that I saw in China, 
it looked both dirty and dilapidated. 

Soon after leaving this neglected edifice, we found ourselves 
amid a constantly increasing throng of Chinese boats, and I 
began to realize that these were specimens of that "floating 
population" of Canton of Avhich we have all read, but of 

which nothing but a visit to it can 
give an adequate idea. 

Hardly was our steamer an- 
chored in the stream before the 
city, when hundreds of these boats 
closed in upon us on all sides, 
like cakes of floating ice around a 
vessel in the Arctic sea. Wedging 
and pushing frantically, the boat- 
men almost swamped themselves. 
They fought for places near the 
ship like men and women in a 
panic. The din of voices sounded 
like the barking of five hundred 
canines at a dog-show ; and 
Chinese gutturals flew through 
the air like bullets from a mitrail- 
leuse. It seemed impossible to disembark in such a mob. 

But suddenly I felt a pressure on my arm. I turned and 
saw apparently three laundrymen from the United States. 




PAGODA, NEAR CANTON RIVER. 



CHINA 



45 



A glance assured me they were father and sons. "Good 
morning, sir," said one of them in excellent English, "do 
you know Carter Harrison, of Chicago?" 

This question, coming in such a place and at such a time, 




rendered me speechless 

with astonishment. _. 

"He mentioned us in -^ 

his book, 'A Race with the Sun,'" continued the young 
Chinaman. "This is my father, the famous guide. Ah Cum. 
This is my brother, and I am Ah Cum, Jr. The others are 
engaged for to-morrow, but I can serve you. Will you 
take me? 

"So you are Ah Cum?" I rejoined; "I have heard much 
of you. Your reference book must be a valuable autograph 
album of distinguished travelers. Yes, we will take you ; 
and, first of all, can you get us safely into one of those boats? 
And if so, who will guarantee that we shall not be mur- 
dered ? ' ' 

"Ah Cum." 

Accordingly we "came," and presently found ourselves 
in a boat. I cannot relate how we got there. I do not 
know, myself. I think of it now as one recalls the pulling of 



46 



CHINA 



a tooth when under the influence of laughing-gas. I have a 
dim remembrance of jumping from one reehng skiff to another, 
of stumbHng over shppery seats, of holding on to Ah Cum, Sr. , 
and being pushed by Ah Cum, Jr., and now and then grabbing 
frantically at a Chinese queue, as a drowning man catches at 
a rope. The only reason that I did not fall into the water is 
that there was not space enough between the boats. At last, 
however, bruised and breathless, we reached a place of ref- 
uge, and watched our boatmen fight their way out through 

the crowd, until 
we landed on 
the neighbor- 
ing island of 
Shameen. Af- 
ter the pande- 
monium around 
the steamer, this 
seemed a per- 
fect paradise 
of beauty and 
repose. It is 
about a mile and 
a quarter in cir- 
cumference, jfnd is reserved exclusively for foreigners. 

Shaded by drooping banyan trees, stand many handsome 
houses inhabited by Englishmen, Germans, and Americans 
whom the necessities of business keep in banishment here. 
Their social life is said to be very pleasant, and I should 
think, indeed, that in so small a settlement the members of 
this little colony (if they did not hate) would love each 
other cordially. This pretty place, before the capture of 
Canton, in 1857, was nothing but a hideous mud-bank. 
But foreigners have transformed it almost as completely as 
they have Hong-Kong, and have built around it broad 




CHINESE BOATS, CANTON. 



CHINA 49 

embankments made of solid granite, which form an agreeable 
promenade. 

Unfortunately, however, Shameen boasts of only one 
hotel, and of this such dismal stories had been told us that we 
had half made up our minds to eat and sleep on the American 
steamers, changing from one to another every morning as they 




INTERIOR OF A EUROPEAN S HOUSE. 



came and went. This seemed, however, so difificult, that we 
resolved to try the accommodations here. We did so, and 
discovered that in this case "the devil is not so black as he 
is painted." At all events, clean, comfortable rooms made 
some amends for a meager bill of fare. 

I cherish no delightful recollections of our meals on the 
island of Shameen. In fact, when a "globe-trotter" has 
reached India or China, the time has come for him to eat 



50 



CHINA 



what he can get, and be devoutly thankful that he can get 
anything. Misguided souls whf) live to eat should never 
make a journey around the world. Of course, the foreign 
residents here live better than travelers at hotels; but a gen- 
tleman who entertained us apologized for his poor table, and 
said that it was especially difTficult to get good beef, since 
Chinamen consider it extravagant to kill such useful animals 
as cows and oxen. "Accordingly," he added, "we classify 

the so-called 
beef that we con- 
sume as 'donkey 
beef,' 'camel 
beef,' and 'preci- 
pice beef.' 

" Precipice 
beef ! " I ex- 
claimed," what in 
the world do you 
mean by 'preci- 
pice beef?' 

"That," he 
replied, "is near- 
est to the genu- 
ine article, for it is the product of a cow that has killed 
herself by falling over a precipice." 

On one side of this island flows the Canton river, and on 
the other is a small canal which separates it from the city. 
Two bridges span this narrow stream, each ha\'ing iron gates 
which are invariably closed at night and guarded by sen- 
tinels. No Chinese, save employees of the foreigners, may 
come within this reservation. In 1883, however, a Chinese 
niob attacked it fiercely, and swarmed across the bridges, as 
the legendary mice invaded Bishop Hatto's tower on the 
Rhine. The English, French, and German families escaped 




THE JINRIKIBHA IN CHINA. 



CHINA 



51 




STARTING FOR CANTON. 



to steamers in the river, leaving their houses to be plundered 
or burned. During my stay here, every evening when this 
bridge was closed, and every morning when it was reopened, 
I heard a hideous din of drums and horns, concluding with 
the firing of a blunderbuss. Our consul told me that the 
object of all this was to inspire fear. "Tremble and obey! " 
are the words which close all Government proclamations in the 
Chinese empire. 

The morning after our arrival, we found awaiting us outside 
the hotel door some coolies - — ~,-,^ 

with the sedan - chairs in ~^~\. 



'' ^ n ,' 





BRIDGE AT CANTON. 



52 



CHINA 



which we were to make our first excursion through Canton. 
Another party also was about to start, including several ladies, 
each of whom held in her hand either a flask of smellinp--salts 

o 

or a piece of camphor Avrapped in a handkerchief. In fact, 
the druggists of Hong-Kong do quite a business in furnish- 
ing visitors to Canton with disinfectants and restoratives. 
Some of these ladies feared being insulted by the Canton pop- 
ulace, and told 
exciting stories 
of an English 
lady who had 
been recently 
spat upon, and 
of American 
ladies who had 
been followed by 
a hooting crowd. 
Ah Cum, how- 
ever, smiled 
complacently. 

"There is no 
danger, ' ' he as- 
sured us; "my 
father will take 
care of you la- 
dies, as I will of 
Every one here knows us. Our people 




A CANTON STREET 



these gentlemen, 
are always safe." 

Accordingly we started, crossed the bridge, and two min- 
utes later found ourselves engulfed, like atoms in a sewer, in 
the fetid labyrinth of Canton. One should not be surprised 
that illustrations of its streets are not clearer. The marvel is 
that they are visible at all! "Streets," as we understand 
the word, they cannot be truthfully called. The}^ are dark, 



CHINA 



55 



tortuous alleys, destitute of sidewalks, and from four to eight 
feet wide, winding snake-like between long lines of gloomy 
shops. Comparatively little daylight filters through them to 
the pavement, not only by reason of their narrow limits, but 
from the fact that all these passageways are largely filled up, 
just above the people's heads, with strips of wood, which 
serve as advertising placards. Many of them are colored 
blue, red, white, or green, and bear strange characters, gilded 
or painted on 
their surfaces. 
These in the 
dark perspec- 
tive of a crowd- 
ed alley look like 
the banners of 
some long pro- 
cession. 

These letters 
do not give 
the merchants' 
names, but serve 
as trade-marks, 
like the dedi- 
catory words 
above the doors of shops in France. How any one can read 
them is a mystery; not merely on account of the twilight 
gloom, but from the fact that here at every step one comes 
in contact with a multitude of repulsive Chinamen, many of 
them naked to the waist, who seem compressed within this 
narrow space like a wild torrent in a gorge. To stop in such 
a place and read a sign appeared to me as dififiicult as study- 
ing the leaves of the trees while riding through a forest on a 
Texas broncho. 

As our bearers pushed their way through these dark, 




Alll.l'; 111" COXKl'Cll'S, CANTON. 



56 



CHINA 



narrow lanes, the people squeezed themselves against the 
walls to let us pass; then closed about us instantly again, like 
sharks around the stern of a boat. At any moment I could 

have touched a dozen naked 
shoulders with my hand, and 
twice as many with my cane. 
Meanwhile, to the noise of the 
loquacious multitude were 
added the vociferations of our 
bearers, who shouted constantly 
for people to make way, ascrib- 
ing to us, we were told, dis- 
tinguished titles that evidently 
excited curiosity even among 
the stolid Chinamen. Occasion- 
ally we met a sedan-chair com- 
ing in the opposite direction. 
Both sets of bearers then began 
to yell like maniacs, and we 
would finally pass each other 
with the utmost dif^culty, our coolies having frequently to 
back the chair-poles into one shop, and then run them for- 
ward into a doorway on the opposite corner, thereby blocking 
the noisy, surly* crowd until the passage could be cleared. 

The faces packed about us, while not positively hostile, 
were as a rule unfriendly. An insolent stare was 
characteristic of most of them. Some disagreeable 
criticisms were pronounced, but Ah Cum's 
expression never changed, and we, of course, 
could not understand them. — -- 

Once a banana-skin, thrown 
probably by a mischievous 
boy, flew by my head ; and 
I was told that China's 




A CANTON COOLIE. 




A WHEELBARROW FOR FREIGHT, 



CHINA 



57 



favorite exclamation, "foreign devils," was often heard. But 
I dare say that if a Chinese mandarin, in full regalia, were to 
walk through some of our streets, he would not fare as well 
as we did in Can- 
ton ; and that if 
he ever went to 
the Bowery, 
"he 'd never go 
there anymore." 
As we kept 
passing on 
through other 
alleys teeming 
with half - clad 
specimens of the 
great unwashed, 
I called to mind 

the fact that this low class in China has been deliberately 
taught to hate, despise, and thoroughly distrust all foreigners. 
The unjust opium war with England, the recent territorial 
war with France, the stories told them of the treatment of 
their countrymen in the United States, — all these would, of 




ONE OF THE BROADEST STREETS. 




CHINESE TEA -PICKERS, 



58 



CHINA 



themselves, be enough to make them hostile; but they are as 
nothing to the effect produced upon an ignorant, superstitious 
populace by the placards posted on the walls of many Chinese 
cities. I read translations of a few of these, and I believe 
they cannot be surpassed in literature for the vulgarity and 
infamy of their accusations. They are in one sense perfectly 
absurd ; but when we recollect the riotous acts to which they 




CHINESE MERCHANTS DRIXKINC, TE. 



have frequently incited their deluded victims, they challenge 
serious consideration. 

On entering some of the shops that line these passage- 
ways, I was astonished at the contrast they presented to the 
streets themselves. The latter are at times no more than 
four feet wide. Not so the shops. Many of them have a 
depth of eighty feet, and in the centre are entirely open to 
the roof. In the corner of each is placed a little shrine. A 
gallery extends around the second story, and on that floor, or 



CHINA 



59 




HAI.L IN A CHINKSE HOUSE. 



in the rear of the building, the owners hve. Some of these 
shops are handsomely adorned with fine wood-carving and 
bronze lamps, and on the shelves is stored a great variety of 
goods, frequently 
including articles 
as dissimilar as 
silk and cotton 
fabrics, fans, 
jewelry, umbrel- 
las, Waterbury 
clocks, and Chi- 
nese shoes. 

Among these 
shops we saw a 
building used partly as a temple and partly as the Guild Hall 
for the Canton silk merchants. Guilds, or trade-unions, have 
existed here for centuries. They permeate every branch of 

Chinese indus- 
try, legal and 
illegal. Even 
the thieves form 
themselves into 
a guild, and I 
suppose there is 
' ' honor' ' among 
them. The 
origin of these 
unions is partly 
due to unjust 
taxation. Can- 
ton contains a 
vast amount of wealth, but those possessing it are careful 
to conceal all trace of any superabundance. On this account 
disputes between the various guilds are settled by arbitra- 




A CHINESE BED AND FURNITURE. 



6o 



CHINA 



tion. To allow their affairs to go into court would show too 
plainly to the tax-collectors their financial status. Accord- 
ingly litigation is almost unknown. Moreover, when a case 
is settled by arbitration, the losing party not only pays the 
disputed sum, but is obliged to give a supper to the victor. 

In another building that we passed I saw a curious cere- 
mony, which Ah Cum explained as that of three Buddhist 
priests who were clearing a house of evil spirits. It appears 

that, two weeks before, a 
man had committed sui- 
cide on the premises, in 
order to avenge himself on 
the proprietor. For in 
China a man, instead of 
killing his enemy, some- 
times kills himself, the 
motive being a desire that 
the hated one shall be re- 
garded as responsible for 
his death, and be pursued 
by evil spirits here and in 
the world to come. To 
be annoyed by ghosts must 
be exceedingly unpleasant, 
but, on the whole, I hope 
that all my enemies will try the Chinese method. 

Occasionally we discovered in these streets an itinerant 
barber. These Chinese Figaros carry their outfits with them. 
First in importance comes a bamboo pole, which is the im- 
memorial badge of their profession. To this is usually 
attached one solitary towel, — free to every customer. From 
one extremity of this pole hangs a small brass basin, together 
with a charcoal stove for heating water; the other end is 
balanced by a wooden cabinet, which serves the patient as a 




EXORCISING SPIRITS. 




LADY AND MAID. 



CHINA 



63 



seat during the operation, and contains razors, lancets, twee- 
zers, files, and other surgical instruments. 

It matters not where one of these tonsorial artists prac- 
tises his surgery. A temple court, a flight of steps, a street, 
or a back-yard, are quite the same to him. He takes his 
queue where he can find it. One of his commonest duties is 
to braid that customary appendage to a Chinaman's head, 
without which he would 
be despised. It is com- 
ical to estimate the 
thousands of miles of 
Chinese queues which 
even one barber twists 
in the course of his 
career — -enough, if tied 
together, end to end, 
to form a cable between 
Europe and America. 
Yet this singular style 
of hair- dressing (now 
so universal) was in- 
troduced into China 
only two hundred and 
fifty years ago. Before 
that time the Chi- 
nese wore full heads of hair, and the present fashion of 
shaved crowns and twisted queues is of Tartar origin, and was 
imposed by a conquering dynasty as a badge of servitude. 
The wearing of a mustache in China is an indication that he 
whose face it adorns is a grandfather. In fact, until he is 
forty-five years old, a Chinaman usually shaves his face com- 
pletely ; but this fact does not prove that after that time he 
can dispense with the services of a barber. For the tonsorial 
art in China is exceedingly varied ; and Chinese barbers not 





' iS«A. 



CHINESE BARBER. 



64 



CHINA 




A CHINESE MERCHANT. 



only braid the queue; they also shave 
the eyebrows, clean the ears, pull 
teeth, and massage. Moreover, they 
scrape the inside of their victim's eye- 
lids — a custom which is believed by 
foreigners to be the cause of much 
of the ophthalmia in China. 

Chinese fortune-tellers had for me 
a singular fascination. I found them 
everywhere — in temple courts, at gate- 
ways and beside the roads — invariably 
wearing spectacles, and usually seated 
at a table decorated with huge Chinese 
characters. Their services seemed to 
be in great demand. In every case 
the ceremony was the same. Each applicant in turn ap- 
proached, and stated what he wished to know; for example, 
whether a certain day would be a lucky time for him to buy 
some real estate, or which of several girls his son would better 
marry. Upon the table stood a tin box full of bamboo sticks. 
One of these 
slips the cus- 
tomer drew at 
random, apd 
from the sen- 
tence written on 
it the fortune- 
teller gave his 
answer in oracu- 
la r words — 
which could, as 
usual, be inter- 
preted in vari- 
ous ways. 




A CHINESE FORTtTNE -TELLER. 



CHINA 



65 




A WALL OF CANTON. 



At length, 
however, leav- 
ing for a time 
the shops and 
dimly - lighted 
alleys, we found 
ourselves ap- 
proaching a 
huge gate. For 
Canton, like 
most other 
Chinese cities, is divided into certain districts, each of which 
is separated from the adjoining one by a wall. The gateways 
in these walls are always closed at night, and are of special 
use in case of fires or insurrections, since they are strong 
enough to hold in check a surging crowd till the police or sol- 
diers can arrive. 

Passing through this portal, we made our way along the 
wall until we arrived at 
a prominent point of ob- 
servation, known as the 
Five - storied Pagoda. 
Whatever this may once 
have been, it is to-day a 
shabby, barn-like struc- 
ture, marked here and 
there with traces of red 
paint, like daubs of 
rouge on a clown's face. 
All visitors to Canton, 
however, will recollect 
the building, with a cer- 
tain amount of pleasure, 
as being the resting-place 




THE FIVE-STORIED PAGODA. 



66 



CHINA 



in which one eats the lunch brought from the steamer or 
hotel. Not that there is not food of certain kinds obtainable 
in Canton itself, but somehow what one sees of Chinese deli- 
cacies here does not inspire him with a desire to partake of 




A WAYSIDE RESTAURANT. 



them. In one of Canton's streets, for example, I entered a 
cat-restaurant. Before the door was a notice which Ah Cum 
translated th^s: ''Two fine black cats to-day, ready soon." 
On stepping inside, I heard some pussies mewing piteously in 
bamboo cages. Hardly had I entered when a poor old 
woman brought the proprietor some kittens for sale. He felt 
of them to test their plumpness, as we might weigh spring 
chickens. Only a small price was offered, as they were very 
thin, but the bargain was soon concluded, the woman took 
her money, and the cadaverous kittens went to swell the 
chorus in the cages. Black cats, by the way, cost more in 
China than cats of any other color, for the Chinese believe 
that the flesh of dark-coated felines makes good blood. 



CHINA 



67 



To some Chinamen, dogs fried in oil are also irresistible. 
In one untidy street, swarming with yellow-skinned human- 
ity, we saw a kind of gipsy kettle hung over a wood fire. 
Within it was a stew of dog-meat. Upon a pole close by 
was hung a rump of uncooked dog, with the tail left on, to 
show the patrons of this open-air restaurant to what particu- 
lar breed the animal had belonged. For it is said there is a 
great difference in the flesh of dogs. Bull-terriers, for exam- 
ple, would probably be considered tough. Around this kettle 
stood a group of coolies, each with a plate and spoon, devour- 
ing the canine stew as eagerly as travelers eat sandwiches at a 
railway restaurant after the warning bell has rung. Some 
hungry ones were looking on as wistfully as boys outside a 
bun-shop. One man had such a famished look that, through 
the medium of Ah Cum, I treated him at once. Moreover, 
hundreds of rats, dried and hung up by the tails, are exposed 
for sale in Canton streets, and shark's fins, antique duck 
eggs, and sea-slugs are considered delicacies. 

We tried to bring back photographic proofs of all these 
horrors, but it was impossible. Whenever we halted in the 




: s-'^. • 4 -:. 



*'*^*"~-^^"w ~z..>-jhi'-^ 'M- 




kjw. — *^^ ._<>3> 



CHINAMEN OUT ON A PICNIC. 



narrow lanes, in fifteen seconds we would be encircled by a 
moving wall of hideous faces, whose foremost rank kept clos- 
ing in on us until the atmosphere grew so oppressive that we 
gasped for breath and told our bearers to move on. Nor is 



68 



CHINA 



this all. These crowds were sometimes positively hostile. A 
superstitious fear of being photographed by "foreign devils" 
made them dangerous. This fact was several times made dis- 
agreeably evi- 
dent. Thus, in 
a garden adjoin- 
ing a Chinese 
temple, I wished 
to photograph 
some "sacred" 
hogs which were 
attached to the 
sanctuary in 
some unknown 
capacity. But scarcely had the exposure been made, when a 
priest gave the alarm, and in three minutes a mob of men and 
boys were rushing toward us, uttering yells and throwing 




THE SACRED HOGS. 




SORTING TEA. 



stones. Ah Cum himself turned pale. He sprang in front of 
us, and swore (may heaven forgive him !) that not a picture had 
been taken. Of course we offered money as indemnity, but 



CHINA 



71 




A CHINESE FARM-HOUSE. 



the priests rejected it with scorn, claiming that by the pointing 
of the camera we had stopped the growth of the hogs. I do 
not think I exaggerate the situation when I say that if the 
politic Ah Cum had not been there to defend us, we should 

have suffered 
personal injury. 
Standing up- 
on the summit of 
the Five-storied 
Pagoda, we 
looked out over 
the city of Can- 
ton. For wide- 
spread, unre- 
lieved monotony, I never saw the equal of that view in any 
place inhabited by human beings. True, the confusion of the 
foreground was to be excused, since a tornado had recently 
blown down many of the native houses. But far beyond this 
mass of ruins, stretching on 
and on for miles, was the same 
monotonous, commonplace 
vista of low, uninteresting 
buildings, seamed, with mere 
crevices in lieu of streets. 
Meantime, from this vast area 
came to us a dull, persistent 
hum, like the escape of steam 
from a locomotive, reminding 
us that here were swarming 
nearly two million human be- 
ings, almost as difificult for a 
foreigner to distinguish or 
identify as ants in a gigantic 

ailt-Illll. ^jjg FLOWERY PAGODA, CANTON. 




72 



CHINA 



The exact population of Canton is hard to determine. 
The number arrived at depends upon where one leaves off 
counting the three hundred suburban villages, each of which 
seems a part of the city. Bishop Harper, who lived here for 
forty years, says, that if one should plant a stake in the centre 
of Canton, and count all around it within a radius of ten 
miles, one would find an aggregate of three-and-a-half million 
people. One village, for example, eleven miles away, noted 

forsilkand other 






manufactures, is 
thought to con- 
tain eight hun- 
dred thousand 
inhabitants. 

Out of this 
wilderness of 
mediocrity there 
rose in one place 
a pagoda, which 
by contrast 
seem.ed to pos- 
sess prodigious 
height ; but such 
objects are ex- 
To understand what Canton is like, one must 
picture to himself a city which, Avith its suburbs, is larger 
and more populous than Paris, yet has not one handsome 
avenue, one spacious square, or even one street that pos- 
sesses the slightest claim to cleanliness or beauty. Worse 
than this, it is a city without a single Chinese building in its 
whole extent that can be even distantly compared in archi- 
tectural elegance with thousands of imposing structures in 
any other city of the civilized world. "But are there no 
European edifices in Canton?" the reader may perhaps in- 



CANTONESE PAWN-SHOPS. 



ceptional. 



CHINA 



n 



quire. Yes, one, which makes the contrast only more appar- 
ent. It is the Roman Catholic cathedral, whose lofty tow- 
ers are, strangely enough, the first objects in the city which 
the traveler sees in sailing up the river from Hong-Kong. 
This handsome Gothic structure, built entirely of granite, 
rising from such a sea of architectural ugliness, at once 
called forth our admiration. To the Chinese, however, these 
graceful towers are objects of the utmost hatred. It angers 
them to see this area, which French and English conquerors 
obtained by treaty, still occupied by a Christian church. So 
far, it has escaped destruction ; but there are those Avho 
prophesy its doom and 
say that the time will 
come when not one stone 
of it will be left upon 
another. 

There are, however, 
five or six other buildings 
in Canton, which rival 
the pagoda and the Cath- 
olic church in height. 
These hideous objects, 
which look like mon- 
strous granite boxes set 
on end, are pawn-shops. 
One might conclude from 
their enormous size that 
half the personal property '^^~. 
of the Cantonese was in 
pawn. They certainly 
are well patronized, for 
pawning clothes is such 
a common thing in China 
that hundreds of the 




CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL, CANTON. 



74 



CHINA 



Cantonese send here for safe-keeping their furs and overcoats 
in summer, and their thin summer clothes in winter, receiving 
money for them as from any pawn-broker. The Chinese 
mode of guarding these tall structures against thieves is cer- 
tainly unique. Upon the roofs are piled stones to be dropped 
upon the heads of robbers, and also reservoirs of vitriol, 
with syringes to squirt the horrible acid on invaders. 

Astonished at this lack of imposing architecture, we asked 




TEMPLE OF FIVE HUNDRED GODS. 



if there were no temples in Canton. Assuredly there were — 
eight hundred of them, all more or less defaced and incrusted 
with dirt. One of the oldest and most sacred is called the 
"Temple of Five Hundred Gods," because within its walls 
are seated five hundred life-size images of gilded wood, repre- 
senting deified sages of the Buddhist faith. But they are all 
coarse specimens of sculpture, and many are amusing carica- 
tures. In front of each is a small jar of ashes, in which the 
worshiper burns a stick of incense in honor of his favorite god. 
Offerings of money, too, are sometimes made — but not of 



CHINA 



75 




AN OLD TEMPLE, CANTON. 



genuine money. The Chinese are usually too practical to 
use anything but imitation money made of gilded paper. I 
do not know what the gods think of this Oriental style 
of dropping but- 
tons in the con- 
tribution - box, 
but the priests 
do not like this 
sort of currency. 
They are all 
"hard money" 
men. 

But, if we ac- 
cept the ancient 
proverb that "To 
labor is to pray," then are the Chinese devout indeed. What- 
ever other faults they may possess, idleness is not one of them. 
The struggle for existence keeps them active. Yet they live 
on almost nothing. A German merchant told me that one 

of his coolies, 
after twenty-five 
years of service, 
had recently had 
his salary raised 
to ten dollars a 
month. The 
laborer was, of 
course, delight- 
ed. ''Now," he 
exclaimed, " I 
intend to marry 
another wife. For years I have longed to have two wives, 
but have never been able to afford it ; but now, with ten 
dollars a month, I can indulge in luxuries!" 




APPROACH TO A SHRINE. 



76 



CHINA 



In strolling about among these Chinese coolies, I found 
that life in China is indeed reduced to its lowest terms. In 
some of the Canton shops, for example, I saw potatoes sold 
in halves and even in quarters, and poultry is offered, not 
only singly, but by the piece — so much for a leg, so much 
for a wing. Second-hand nails are sold in lots of half-a- 
dozen. A man can 
buy one-tenth of a 
cent's worth of fish 
or rice. I under- 
stood, at last, how 
Chinese laundrymen 
can go home from 
the United States 
after a few years' 
work, and live 
upon their incomes. 
When one perceives 
under what condi- 
tions these swarm- 
ing myriads live, one 
naturally asks how 
pestilence can be 
averted. One source of safety is, no doubt, the universal 
custom of drinking only boiled water in the form of tea. 
If it were not for this, there would be inevitably a terrible 
mortality, for the coolies take no precautions against infec- 
tion. A gentleman in the English consular service told us 
that he had seen two Canton women in adjoining boats, one 
washing in the river the bedclothes of her husband who had 
died of cholera, the other dipping up water in which to cook 
the family dinner! 

If, perchance, these people should fall ill, I fear they 
would not be greatly benefited by any Chinese doctor whom 



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1 


1 


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pPBi^SfH 




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ONE OF THE MANY. 



CHINA 



77 




/{MMv- 




they might employ. Chinese physicians are thought to be 
ignoramuses, unless they can diagnose a case by merely feeling 
the pulse. Hence, if they are called to attend a lady, they 
see of her usually nothing but her wrist, thrust out between 
the curtains of the bed. Those who prescribe for internal 
diseases are called "inside doctors," Avhile others are "out- 
side" men, just as some of our medicines are labeled "for 
external use only. ' ' A story is told of a man who had been 
shot through the arm with an arrow. He first applied to an 
"outside" doctor, who cut off the two ends of the weapon 
and put a plaster on each wound. "But," said the patient, 
"the remainder of the 
arrow is still in my 
arm." "Ah!" replied 
the "outside" doctor, 
"that is not my affair. 
To have that removed, 
you must go to an 'in- 
side' man." 

One day, in passing 
through a temple gate, 
a half-clad Chinaman 
offered me for sale a 
box of grasshoppers, 
which, when ground 
into a powder, make a 
popular remedy for 
some ailments. In fact, 

aside from ginseng and a few other well-known herbs, the 
medicines used in China seem almost incredible. A favorite 
cure for fever, for example, is a soup of scorpions. Dysen- 
tery is treated by running a needle through the tongue. The 
flesh of rats is supposed to make the hair grow. Dried lizards 
are recommended as a tonic for "that tired feeling," and 




A CHINESE DOCTOR. 



78 



CHINA 




A MEMORIAL GATE. 



iron filings are said to be 
a good astringent. Chi- 
nese physicians say that 
certain diseases are cur- 
able only by a decoction 
whose chief ingredient is 
a piece of flesh cut from 
the arm or thigh of the 
patient's son or daughter. 
To supply this flesh is 
thought to be one of the 
noblest proofs of filial de- 
votion. This is not an 
exaggeration. In the 
Pekin Official Gazette of 
July 5, 1870, is an edi- 
torial, calling the emperor's attention to a young girl who 
had cut off two joints of her finger and dropped them into 
her mother's 
medicine. The 
mother recov- 
ered, and the 
governor of the 
province prf)- 
posed to erect 
a monument in 
honor of the 
child. 

In view of 
such a pharma- 
copoeia, it is a 
comfort to learn 
that in the Chi- 
nese theology a 




BEGGARS ON THE TEMPLE STEPS. 



CHINA 8i 

special place in hell is assigned to ignorant physicians. All 
quacks are doomed to centuries of torture, the worst fate 
being reserved for doctors who abuse their professional skill 
for purposes of immorality. Their punishment is the cheer- 
ful one of being boiled in oil. Another curious, and not 
altogether absurd, custom of the Chinese is to pay a physician 
so long as they continue in health, but if they fall ill, the 




A GROUP OF CHINESE WOMEN. 



doctor's salary ceases until they recover, whereupon it com- 
mences again. 

Chinese women seemed to me, as a rule, exceedingly 
plain, but, even were they Venuses, one of their characteris- 
tics would make my flesh creep. I refer to their claw-like 
finger-nails, which are so long that apparently they could be 
used with equal ease as paper-cutters or stilettoes. Gloves 
cannot possibly be worn upon these finger-spikes, so metal 
sheaths have been invented to protect them. To show what 



82 



CHINA 




LILY FEET. 



can be done in nail-growing, 
the following lengths were meas- 
ured on the left hand of a 
Chinese belle: thumb nail, two 
inches; little finger nail, four 
inches; third finger, five and 
one-quarter inches. Under 
these circumstances we cannot 
wonder that in China it is not 
the custom to shake hands: 
otherwise, painful accidents 
might occur. Accordingly, the 
Chinese clasp their own hands 
and shake them gently at each 
other. 

A still more repulsive pecu- 
liarity of Chinese women is their stunted feet, Avhich for the 

purposes of locomotion are little better than hoofs. All 

Chinese ladies of the better class 

must have these ''lily feet," as 

they are called. Sometimes a 

Chinaman will have two wives ; 

the first an ornamental one with 

"lily feet," .the second, a large- 
footed woman for business. The 

origin of this barbarous custom of 

preventing the growth of the foot 

is unknown. Perhaps it sprang 

from a sentiment which Ah Cum 

graphically expressed by saying: 

"A small foot is much safer to 

live with. A big foot runs about 

too easily and gets into mischief. 

Moreover," he added, with a 




K 



-MOTHEK AXD CHILD 



CHINA 



83 



smile, "a big-footed woman sometimes kicks." One China- 
man assured me with great pride that his wife's foot was only 
two and a half inches long. There is a class of women here 

whose regular business it is 
to bind the feet of little 
girls when about six years 
of age. The process of re- 
pressing the natural growth 
of the foot lasts for seven 
years — the four smaller 
toes being bent under 
until they lose their 
articulations and become 
identified with the sole 
of the foot. When this 
has been accomplished, 
the second and severer 
operation commences — 
of bringing the great toe 
and the heel as nearly 
together as possible. 
The bandage is drawn 
tighter, month by month, until the base of the great toe 
is brought into contact with the heel, and the foot has be- 
come a shapeless lump. By this unnatural treatment the 
leg itself becomes deformed, and its bones are made not 
only smaller in diameter, but shorter. The circulation also is 
obstructed, and the large muscles are soon completely atro- 
phied from disuse. The agony caused by such interference 
with nature can be only faintly imagined. It made the tears 
come to my eyes to hear a Chinese gentleman describe the 
methods taken to console his suffering children and help them 
forget their misery. The poor little creatures scream and 
moan from the incessant pain, and often lie across the bed 




A DISTORTED FOOT. 



84 



CHINA 



with their legs pressed against the edge, in the hope that this 
will lessen their distress; but nothing can relieve them but 
freedom from the torturing bandage, which is never relaxed. 
It makes one sick at heart to think that such a custom has 
prevailed in China for more than a thousand years. 

Should we approach a group of Chinese merchants in Can- 
ton, and ask any one of them "How many children have 
you? " we could be almost certain that he would not think of 

counting his daughters, or 
that he would at least make 
this distinction^ — "I have two 
children, and one girl." For 
to a Chinaman nothing in life 
is so important as to have a 
son to offer sacrifices for him 
after death and worship at his 
grave, since, in their opinion, 
a daughter is not capable of 
doing this. When a boy is 
born, therefore, the father is 
overwhelmed with congratu- 
lations, but if the newcomer 
be a girl, as little reference as 
A CHINESE LADY. posslblc Is madc to the mis- 

fortune. Friends are informed of the birth of a child by strips 
of paper carried through the street. If it be a boy, yellow 
paper is used, but in case of a girl any color will do. This 
feeling, intensified by poverty, is the cause of the infanticide 
which has been, and still is, in certain provinces, so dark a 
blot on the domestic history of China. It is said, for ex- 
ample, that in the vicinity of Amoy thirty per cent, of all 
new-born girls are strangled or drowned, as unwelcome kit- 
tens sometimes are with us. 

On our second day in Canton we investigated another 




CHINA 



85 




THE HOMES OF THOUSANDS. 



phase of Chinese 
Hfe, in some re- 
spects stranger 
than anything 
we had thus far 
seen. Along the 
shores of the 
Canton river, and 
in its various ca- 
nals, is a popula- 
tion of a quarter 
of a million souls, 
living on thousands of peculiar boats crowded together side 
by side, and forming streets, and even colonies, of floating 
dwellings. Moreover, these conditions prevail in every river- 
town throughout the empire. 

Each of these "sampans," as they are called, though only 
about twenty feet in length, constitutes the home of an entire 
family. Eight people frequently live on one boat — grandpa 
and grandma, father and mother, uncle and aunt, two or three 

children, and a 
baby. The lat- 
ter is tied to the 
back of its moth- 
er, even when she 
is rowing. As 
for the other chil- 
dren, their pa- 
rents fasten 
around them 
pieces of bam- 
boo, like life-pre- 
servers, and tie 
them to the rail 




A CHINESE FATERFAIUHAS. 



86 



CHINA 



by a cord. If they tumble over, they float until some one 
gets a chance to pull them in. Upon these little boats thou- 
sands are born, eat, drink, cook, and sleep, and finally die, 
having known no other home. Under the flooring are stored 
their cooking utensils, bedding, clothing, provisions, oil, char- 
coal, and other requisites of their aquatic life. Above them, 




A MARKET-PLACE. 



usually, are movable roofs of bamboo wicker-work, to give 
protection from the sun and rain. 

Some of these families even take boarders ! I verified this 
by going at night among this floating population, and found 
that sleeping space on the boats is rented to those who have no 
fixed abode. Planks are laid over the seats to form a floor, 
and on these lie the numerous members of the household and 



CHINA 



87 



the lodgers. Conspicuous figures in this boat-Hfe are the 
itinerant barbers and physicians, who go about in tiny sam- 
pans, ringing a bell and offering their services. 

Occasionally, however, we beheld a boat much larger and 
finer than the craft around it. It proved to be one of the 
Chinese flower-boats, which are the pleasure resorts of China's 
jeunesse dore'e. By day they are conspicuous by their size and 
gilded wood-work, and in the evening by their many lights. 
Never, while memory lasts, shall I forget an excursion made 
at night with our hotel-proprietor among these flower-boats 
and their surroundings. Many of them were anchored side 
by side, and planks were stretched from one to the other, like 
a continuous sidewalk. As we walked along, we passed by 
countless open doors, each of which revealed a room hand- 
somely furnished with mirrors, marble panels, and blackwood 
furniture. Here were usually grouped a dozen or more hilari- 
ous Chinamen, who were eating, drinking, and smoking, to- 
gether with professional singing-girls, who are hired by the 
owners of these flower-boats to entertain their guests with 
songs and dances. We could not pause to observe them care- 




A FLOWER- BOAT. 



88 



CHINA 



fully, for foreigners are not wanted here, either as visitors or 
patrons. Meanwhile, at the very doorways of these hand- 
some rooms, beggars in greasy garments crowded around us 
and almost threateningly demanded alms. "Look out for 
your pockets," was the proprietor's constant warning. 

I have an indistinct remembrance of thus passing row 
after row of lighted boats, room after room of painted girls, 
group after group of sleek, fat Chinamen at tables, and then, 
on leaving these, of seeing miles of loathsome boats contain- 




CHINESE MUSICIANS. 



ing half-clad men stretched out on bunks and stupefied by 
opium, hag-like females cooking over charcoal braziers, and 
ragged children huddled in dark corners. I have a vivid 
recollection, too, of walking over slimy planks, of breathing 
pestilential odors, and of looking down on patches of repul- 
sive water, so thick with refuse that they resembled in the 
lamp-light tanks of cabbage-soup. We also shudderingly 
passed some leper-boats, whose inmates are afflicted with that 
terrible disease, and who are forced to live as outcasts, beg- 
ging for alms by holding out a little bag suspended from a 



CHINA 



89 



bamboo pole. But finally shaking off the beggars who had 
followed us, and fleeing from this multitudinous life, as one 
might turn with horror from a pool of wriggling eels, I stag- 
gered into the boat belonging to the hotel. As it moved out 
into clearer water, I drew a long breath and looked up at the 
stars. There they were — calm and glorious as ever — scat- 
tered in countless numbers through measureless space. At 
any time, when one looks off into the vault of night, our lit- 
tle globe seems insignificant, but never did it seem to me 

so tiny and 

comparatively 
valueless, as 
when I left 
these myriads 
of Chinamen, 
swarming like 
insects in their 
narrow boats, 
apparently the 
reduction of hu- 
manity to the 
grade of mi- 
crobes. 

The gentle- 
man who had accompanied me on this occasion was a Wall 
street broker. "Well," he exclaimed at last, "I have spent 
fifteen years among the Bulls and Bears, and I think my 
nerves are pretty strong, but for experiences which unnerve 
a man, and things which (glad as I am to have seen them 
once) I never wish to see again, nothing can compare with 
the sights and smells discovered in a trip to Chinatown!" 

What impressed me most, however, in this experience was 
the idea that the millions in and around Canton are but an 
insienificant fraction of the Chinese race. It filled me with. 




A TYPICAL CHINESE CRAFT. 



90 



CHINA 



horror to reflect that all I had witnessed here was but a tiny 
sample of the entire empire. For Canton is said to be supe- 
rior to many Chinese cities. 

One writer has declared that, after walking through the 
Chinese quarter of Shanghai, he wanted to be hung on a 
clothes-line for a week in a gale of wind. Tientsin is said to 
be still worse for dirt and noxious odors. Even Pekin, from 
all accounts, has horribly paved and filthy thoroughfares, 
and its sanitary conditions are almost beyond belief. If such 




A WHEELBARROW BUILT FOR TWO. 



then be the state of things in the capital, what must it be in 
the interior towns, so rarely reached by foreigners? 

It may, however, be objected that in the open ports, 
where they encounter foreign influence, the people are at 
their worst. But Chinamen are not impressionable, like the 
North American Indians or the aborigines on the islands in the 
Pacific, Avho eagerly adopt the vices of their conquerors, and 
speedily succumb to them. 

China is one of the oldest countries in the world. Most of 
her ideas, customs, as well as the personal habits of her people 



CHINA 



91 



are of immemorial antiquity, and her inhabitants are too con- 
servative to change them. What one beholds in Canton, 
therefore, may be fairly supposed to exist from one extremity 
of the empire to the other. 

But now, among so much that is disagreeable, one naturally 
inquires, "Are there not some redeeming features in this Chi- 
nese life?" I must confess there are not many discernible 
to the passing traveler, but I will gladly mention one about 
which I made careful inquiry. It is their honesty in business. 
It is the almost invariable custom for Chinese merchants every 
New-Year's day to settle their accounts, so that no errors 
may be carried over into the coming year; and I was told 
that if a tradesman fails to meet his liabilities at that time, he 
is considered a defaulter and his credit is forever lost. Eng- 
lish and German merchants spoke to us of Chinese commer- 
cial honor in the highest terms, and drew comparisons in this 
respect between them and the Japanese which were not flat- 
tering to the latter. 

Even in Japan, I found at all the foreign banks, in some 
of the shops, and in the Grand Hotel, that the cashiers were 
not Japanese, but Chinamen. Of course, one who has never 
traded with them cannot judge of their comparative abilities 
in a business way, but merchants in Yokohama, Shanghai, 
and Hong-Kong, as well as on the island of Shameen, told 

us that Chinamen were more trust- 
worthy than the Japanese, and 
could be usually depended on to 




A MARRIAGE PROCESSION. 



■■^^/Z 



92 



CHINA 



live up to their contracts, whether they proved favorable or 
unfavorable. 

An English gentleman who had resided both in China and 
Japan for years, once said to me: "The more you see of 
the Japanese the less you will like them. The more you see 

of the Chinese the less you will dis- 
like them. You will always like the 
Japanese; you will always dislike 
Chinamen ; but the degree in which 
you cherish and express these senti- 
ments will constantly diminish." 

Besides the numerous differences 
between Oriental and Occidental 
customs noticed in Japan, we found 
in China many other proofs of 
what has been well called a state 
of topsy-turvydom. Thus, our tail- 
ors draw the needle inward ; Chinese 
tailors stitch outward. With us mili- 
tary men Avear their swords on the 
left side ; in China they are worn on 
the right. In boxing the compass a 
Chinaman says "East, West, South, 
North." To mark a place in a book 
we turn the corner of a page inside; 
a Chinaman bends it the other way. 
We print the title of a volume on 
the back; the Chinese on the front. 
We play battledore and shuttlecock with our hands; the 
Chinese use their feet for a battledore and catch the shut- 
tlecock on their foreheads. We use our own names when 
encraeed in business; in China fancy names are taken. We 
carry one watch hidden in our pocket ; a Chinese gentleman 
sometimes wears two outside his clothes, with their faces 




A CHINESE JUNK. 



CHINA 



93 



exposed. We 
black our boots ; 
the Chinese 
whiten theirs. 
With us it is con- 
sidered impoHte 
to ask a person's 
age ; in China it 
is a high compli- 
ment, and there 
a man is con- 
gratulated if he 
is old. Men, at least in 
the Chinaman has none 





SACRED ROCKS, INTERIOR OF CHINA. 

the Occident, have plenty of pockets; 
and uses his stockings as receptacles 
for papers, and at the back 
of his neck inserts his folded 
fan. At our weddings youth- 
ful bridesmaids are desired ; 
at Chinese nuptials old women 
serve in that capacity. We 
launch our vessels lengthwise ; 
the Chinese launch theirs side- 
wise. We mount a horse 
from the left ; they mount 
their horses from the right. 
We begin dinner with soup 
and fish, and end with des- 
sert ; they do exactly the re- 
verse. Finally, the spoken 
language of China is never 
written, and the written lan- 
guage is never spoken. 

After all, however, we 
should remember that China- 



LI HUNG CHANG S VISITING-CARD. 



94 



CHINA 



men who travel in our own country think that our customs are 
as strange as theirs appear to us. A prominent official of the 
Flowery Kingdom, who made the tour of Europe several 
years ago, took notes of what he saw, and published them on 
his return. Among them are the following: "Women, when 
going to the drawing-room of Queen Victoria regard a bare 
skin as a mark of respect." "When people meet and wish 
to show affection, they put their lips and chins together and 




A JOSS-HOUSE. 

make a smacking sound." This is not so difficult to under- 
stand, when we recollect that, like most Orientals, the 
Chinese do not kiss, and that even a mother does not kiss her 
own baby, although she will press it to her cheek. Again, he 
thus describes our dancing parties: "A European skipping 
match is a strange sight. To this a number of men and 
women come in couples, and enter a spacious hall; there, at 
the sound of music, they grasp each other by both arms, and 
leap and prance backward and forward, and round and round, 



CHINA 



97 



till they are forced to stop for want of breath. All this," he 
adds, "is most extraordinary;" and when we Occidentals 
think of it, perhaps it is. A Chinese youth, after eating for 
the first time a European dinner, wrote of his experience : 
"Dishes of half-raw meat were served, from which pieces were 
cut with sword-like instruments and placed before the guests. 
Finally came a green and white substance, the smell of which 
was overpowering. This, I was informed, was a compound 




PLACE OF EXECUTION, CANTON. 



of sour milk, baked in the sun, under whose influence it 
remains until it becomes filled with insects; yet the greener 
and livelier it is, the greater the relish with which it is eaten ! 
This is called CJie-sze.'' 

The object of most gruesome interest to me in Canton was 
its place of execution. On entering this, I looked about me 
with astonishment ; for almost all the space between the rough 
brick walls was filled with coarse, cheap articles of pottery. 
Ah Cum explained, however, that when a batch of heads 
are to be cut off, the jars are all removed, much as a hotel 



98 



CHINA 



•v/ 




A PAGODA. 



dining-room is cleared for dan- 
cing. The condemned prisoners 
are always brought in baskets 
to this place, and are compelled 
to kneel down with their hands 
tied behind their backs. Their 
queues are then thrown for- 
ward, and they are beheaded 
at a single stroke. Traces of 
blood were visible on the 
ground, and from a mass of 
rubbish close at hand a grin- 
ning Chinaman pulled out sev- 
eral skulls which he had hidden 
there, and claimed a fee for 
exhibiting them. I was pre- 
sented to the executioner, and asked him how many men he 
had himself decapitated, but he could not tell. He kept no 
count, he said — some days six, some days ten, in all probably 
more than a thousand. As he was resolutely opposed to hav- 
ing his picture taken, we placed his two-edged sword against 
the wall, and photographed that. When I was told that, once 
a week, twenty or thirty men are brought into this filthy court 
to die like cattle 
in a slaughter- 
house, I stood 
aghast, but when 
I subsequently 
learned that this 
is the only ex- 
ecution-place in 
a great province 
with a popula- 
tion of twenty 




DRAWING WATER. 



CHINA 



99 




FEMALE CULPRITS. 



millions, the 
number did not 
seem so appall- 
ingly excessive. 
This is, however, 
merely the aver- 
age in ordinary 
times. After 
certain insurrec- 
tions, such as the 
Taiping rebel- 
lion, this hid- 
-i eous square has 
seemed almost a 

reservoir of human blood. The venerable missionary, Dr. 

Williams, states that he saw here one morning at least two 

hundred headless trunks, and stacks of human heads piled 

six feet high. Careful estimates place the number executed 

here during fourteen months, at 

eighty-one thousand, — or more 

than thirteen hundred every 

week ! ^^ 

I doubt if many criminals be- 
headed here feel much regret at 

leaving life, so horrible has been 

their previous condition in the 

Canton prison. We visited this 

institution, but to obtain a pic- 
ture of it was impossible. Within 

an ill-kept, loathsome area, we 

saw a crowd of prisoners wearing 

chains, while around their necks 

were heavy wooden collars, 

which, being from three to five a prisoner. 




lOO 



CHINA 




JUDGE AND PRISONERS. 



feet square, were so wide that the poor wretches wearing 
them could never possibly feed themselves, but must depend 
on others for their nourishment. How they lie down to sleep 
with them on I do not know. Yet they must wear such collars 

for weeks, and 
even months, at 
a time. I have 
no sentimental 
sympathy for 
criminals, and 
thoroughly be- 
lieve in the en- 
forcement of just 
laws, but I was 
shocked at the 
sight of these 
poor creatures. Whatever may have been their guilt, such 
treatment is a degradation of humanity. 

Leaving the place of execution, we made our way to one 
of the criminal courts of Canton. It was in session when we 
entered it, and I never can forget the sight that met my gaze. 
Before the judge was a prisoner on his knees, pleading for 
mercy and protesting innocence. Chains were around his 
neck, waist, wrists, and ankles. Beside him knelt an aged 
woman, whose gray hair swept the floor as she rocked back 
and forth, imploring vengeance on her son's assassin. At 
last the culprit confessed his crime of murder, and was led 
back to prison. How sincere his confession was, it would be 
hard to say ; for if, in the face of powerful adverse testimony, 
an accused man still asserts his innocence, he is often pun- 
ished in the court-room till he does confess. Around the hall 
were various instruments of torture — bamboo rods to flog the 
naked back; hard leather straps with which to strike the pris- 
oner on the mouth, thus sometimes breaking the teeth and 



CHINA 



lOI 



even the jaw ; thumb-screws and cords by which he is sus- 
pended by his thumbs and toes ; and heavy sticks with which 
to beat his ankles. I did not happen to see these used, 
because in the three trials I witnessed all of the prisoners 
confessed. But they are used; and just as I was entering the 
court, I met a criminal being led back to prison, so weak and 
crippled by his punishment, that he could hardly step with- 
out assistance. Curiously enough, after the torture has been 
administered, the culprit is required to fall upon his knees 
and thank the judge. This I should think would be "the 
most unkindest cut of all." 

It seems impossible to say anything in defense of such a 
system as this; for in China a man is not only looked upon as 
guilty till he is 
proved innocent, 
but is kept in 
loathsome con- 
finement, and 
may be even put 
upon the rack, in 
spite of the es- 
tablished fact 
that torture is 
never a test of 
truth. And yet 
a foreign resident 
made, as an apol- 
ogy, the follow- 
ing statement: 
"You must re- 
member that testimony here amounts to nothing, and that, 
by paying sixpence apiece, you can pack the court-room with 
men who will swear that black is white. Hence, where a man 
can easily bribe false witnesses to ruin his enemy, the Chinese 




A CHINESE COURT. 



I02 



CHINA 



law provides that no one shall under any circumstances be 
put to death unless he has confessed his crime. But since a 
prisoner on trial for his life will usually protest his innocence 
to the last, the court attempts by torture to force him to 
confess." 

We visited finally an object in Canton far pleasanter than 
its scenes of punishment, yet equally characteristic of the 
national life. It is the place where natives of this province 
take the first step in the only path which in China leads to 
political and social rank. It is the scene of the competitive 
examinations, the fame of which has filled the world. 




THE EXAMINATION GROUND, CANTON. 



The courtyard where the contest takes place is by no means 
inviting. It is«an area of sixteen acres, covered with nearly 
nine thousand rough brick sheds. At the time of an exam- 
ination each of these is occupied by a candidate. Before he 
enters it, his person is carefully searched, and soldiers and 
policemen guard all passageways to prevent communication. 
"Each in his narrow cell," these applicants for ofifice then 
remain for three consecutive days and nights, about as pleas- 
antly lodged, I should imagine, as Jonah was for the same 
length of time; for these dirty dens of brick are only four 
feet long, three feet wide, and possibly six feet high. One 
of the horse-sheds in the rear of a New England meeting- 



CHINA 



los 



) 




.&^ 




A STUDENT. 



house would be a far more comfort- 
able place in which to eat and sleep. 
Perhaps they are meant, however, to 
emphasize the triumph of mind over 
matter. Their only furniture consists 
of two small planks, one for a seat, 
the other for a table. Rest is, of 
course, impossible in such a cage, and 
candidates have sometimes died here 
from physical and mental strain. All 
this seems inexcusably cruel ; yet the 
Chinese government may have good 
reasons for maintaining this severity. 
For instance, such a system, if intro- 
duced at Washington, would rid the District of Columbia of 
nine-tenths of its ofifice-seekers within twenty-four hours. 
While some of these students persevere in their attempts 
till they are seventy or eighty years of age, others are quite 
young; but the fact of youth is not considered discreditable, 
for Confucius said: "A youth should always be regarded with 
respect. How do we know that his future may not be su- 
perior to our present?" At all events, the highest place is 

open to them, 
if their brains 
will take them 
there ; for every 
village in China 



has its school, 
and every free- 
born citizen 
may qualify for 
this struggle, 
the governing 
principle of 




FISHING ON THE RIVER. 



io6 



CHINA 



which is "Let the best man win! " It is the law of the "sur- 
vival of the fittest" exemplified in politics. 

In all the provinces of China, on the appointed day, thou- 
sands of candidates assemble, eager for the contest. Subjects 
are given them on which they must produce a poem and orig- 
inal essays. Their work is then examined by officials ap- 




A CHINESE GENERAL AND HIS ATTENDANTS. 



pointed by the Government, and so extremely rigid is the 
test, that out of every thousand applicants only about ten 
gain the first, or "District," degree. There are, however, 
three degrees to be attained by Chinese aspirants for fame. 
Those who come out as victors in the first receive no office, 
but are at least exempt from corporal punishment, and may 
attempt the examination for the next degree. Even the few 
who pass the second, or "Provincial," test (about one in a 



CHINA 



107 



hundred) receive no government appointment. Yet they 
are distinguished among their countrymen by wearing a gold 
button in their hats, and by a sign over their houses signifying 
"Promoted man." 

Those who succeed in standing the third, or "Imperial," 
test at Pekin, — severer even than the other two, — have reached 
the apex of the pyramid. They 
are now mandarins, and have 
acquired all they can desire, — 
social distinction, ofifice, wealth, 
and (what is sometimes still 
more highly prized) great na- 
tional fame. For in the results 
of this examination the entire 
country takes the greatest in- 
terest. The names of the suc- 
cessful men are everywhere 
proclaimed by means of cour- 
iers, river-boats, and carrier- 
pigeons, since thousands of 
people in the empire have laid 
their wagers on the candidates, 
as we might do on horses at the 
Derby. Strange, is it not, to 
think that this elaborate Chi- 
nese system was practised in 
the land of the Mongols substantially as it is to-day, at a time 
when England was inhabited by painted savages ? 

Moreover, the honors of successful candidates in China 
cannot be inherited. Young men, if they would be ennobled, 
must surpass their competitors and win their places as their 
fathers did. Even the youthful son of Li Hung Chang, whom 
General Grant considered, next to Bismarck, the most re- 
markable man he met with in his tour around the world, is 




LI HUNG CHANG. 



io8 



CHINA 



not entitled, because of his father's ofifice, to any special rank. 
Hence, China, though an absolute monarchy, has no privi- 
leged class whose claims rest merely on the accident of birth. 
Her aristocracy consists of those who have repeatedly proved 
themselves intellectually superior to their rivals. Among no 
people in the world, therefore, have literary men received 
such honors as in China ; and it is a remarkable fact that this 
vast nation has worshiped for two thousand years, not a great 



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LI HUNG CHANG AND SUITE ON THEIR TOUR AROUND THE WORLD. 

warrior, nor even a prophet claiming inspiration from God, but 
a philosopher, — Confucius. 

I have often thought that were I asked to compare the 
Chinese empire of to-day with some material object, I would 
select for such comparison the Great Wall on its northern 
frontier. This mighty work has hardly been surpassed in the 
whole history of architecture, not even by the builders of the 
Pyramids. It is no less than twenty-five feet high and forty 
feet broad, with watch-towers higher still, at intervals of 



CHINA 



109 



three hundred feet. And yet it has a length of nearly fifteen 
hundred miles, a distance exceeding that from Boston to St. 
Paul, and in its uninterrupted march spans deep ravines and 
climbs to lofty mountain crests, in one place nearly five thou- 
sand feet in height. Although it was built three hundred years 
before the birth of Christ, it still exists, and during fourteen 



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K. 




/ 



^ I ? 




THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. 



centuries sufificed to hold in check the savage tribes of Tartars 
from the north. It has been calculated that if the Great Wall 
were constructed at the present time, and with Caucasian 
labor, its cost would pay for all the railroads in the United 
States. One hundred years ago an English engineer reckoned 
that its masonry represented more than all the dwellings of 
England and Scotland put together, and, finally, that its 



no 



CHINA 



material would construct a stone wall six feet high and two 
feet thick around the entire globe. 

In many respects this great rampart is typical of China. 
Both have a vast antiquity, both have an enormous extent, 

and both have 
had their pe- 
riods of glory, 
— China her 
age of prog- 
ress and in- 
vention, and 
this old wall a 
time when it 
was kept in 
perfect order, 
when warri- 
ors stood at 
every tower, 
and when it 
stretched for 

fifteen hundred miles — an insurmountable barrier to invasion. 
But just as this leviathan of masonry has outlived its useful- 
ness, and is at present crumbling to decay, so the huge Chi- 
nese empire itself now seems decrepit and wholly alien to the 
nineteenth century. Her roads, once finely kept, are now 
disgraceful ; her streets are an abomination to the senses ; her 
rivers and canals are left to choke themselves through want 
of dredging; and even her temples show few signs of care. 
Stagnation and neglect are steadily at work on her colossal 
frame, as weeds and plants disintegrate this mouldering wall. 
Will this old empire ever be aroused to new activity, and can 
fresh life-blood be infused into her shrunken veins to animate 
her inert frame? There is, I think, a possibility that, in the 
coming century, the new, progressive party here will overcome 




A GATEWAY IN THH GREAT WALL. 



CHINA 



III 



the dull conservatism of the nation, connect her vast interior 
with the sea, utilize her mineral wealth, develop her immense 
resources, and make her one of the great powers of the world. 
Napoleon once warned England that if the Chinese should 
learn too well from her the art of war, and then acquire the 
thirst for conquest which has characterized other nations, the 
result might be appalling to the whole of Europe. For think 
what inexhaustible armies they could raise, and what great 
fleets they could build and launch upon their mighty rivers! 
But this is a problem of the future, about which no man can 
predict with certainty. 

Many have asked me if I am glad that I went to China, 
and I have always answered that, as a unique and useful 
study of humanity, I think it one of the most valuable expe- 
riences of my life. Still I am bound to say, that when I stood 
upon the deck of an outgoing steamer, and felt it move be- 
neath my feet responsive to the engine's stroke, I drew a 
breath of pleasure and relief. For I was assured that the 




A LEVIATHAN OF MASONRY. 



112 



CHINA 



swarming millions of the Chinese empire were being left 
behind me, and that my face was turned toward that historic 
land where, lighted by the Southern Cross, I was to visit 
Hindu shrines and Mogul palaces, and gaze on the Himalayas 
and the Taj Mahal. 




LECTURE IX 



INDIA 



To the variety of the entertainment and information afforded 
by previous numbers of this series, a notable addition is to be 
made in the ninth tour. This time Mr. John L. Stoddard will 
conduct us to India — once famed for the boundless wealth and the 
barbaric splendor of its native princes. In the matchless archi- 
tecture of the Mogul tombs and palaces is mirrored the glory of 
past conquerors; in the gross superstition of the Hindus is exhibited 
the chief obstacle encountered by the country's present rulers. 
The English have undoubtedly advanced India's material interests, 
but they have not yet eradicated the evils which attend the caste 
system, nor have thejf counteracted the fanaticism which enslaves a 
large part of the native population. But the subject has from any 
point of view interesting aspects and these are presented with 
Mr. Stoddard's usual felicity. The text of the lecture is hand- 
somely set off by 



112 Illustrations 



reproduced from the author's collection of specially prepared pho- 
tographs. Lecture IX will be supplied at the low price charged 
for previous issues of this series. 



THE LAKESIDE PRESS, R. R. DONNELLEY * SONS COMPANY, PRINTERS, CHICAGO. 







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